The recent proliferation of video cassette players and recorders has created a new market for video taped advertisements and messages. This new market has created an enormous demand for inexpensive and lightweight limited use video cassette cartridges that are suitable for mailing. These cassettes are also suitable for non-commercial recordings such as public service announcements and personal messages sent to family and friends.
Lightweight limited use video cassette cartridges are known in the art. However, many conventional lightweight video cassette cartridges are poorly designed and lack structural rigidity. For example, prior art cassette cartridges typically include a cassette shell formed from a pair of mating top and bottom panels. The panels are typically connected by a plurality of support posts or columns. A pair of video tape reels are positioned between the panels for winding video tape.
This prior art construction does not offer sufficient structural rigidity because the support posts have to be spaced a sufficient distance apart to provide space for the video tape reels. This results in a finished cassette cartridge which is weak and flimsy. This weak and flimsy design prevents advertisers and consumers from making full use of conventional lightweight video cassette cartridges because they commonly become damaged and thus inoperative during handling. For example, since lightweight video cassette cartridges are often mailed, they are exposed to rough handling. As a result of the poor design of conventional lightweight video cassette cartridges, their support posts commonly break or dislodge during handling and mailing.
Applicant has developed several improved lightweight video cassette cartridges that have provided a significant advance in the art of video cassette cartridges. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,398,881, hereby incorporated by reference, discloses a lightweight video cassette cartridge with structure that provides improved structural rigidity. The present invention discloses another improved lightweight video cassette cartridge with novel structure that further improves the rigidity of the cassette cartridge.